A state senator in California introduced a bill yesterday which would seek to force priests to violate the sacramental seal of Confession in suspected cases of child abuse or neglect. Clergy are already mandatory reporters in the state of California, but there is a legal exemption for material disclosed in the confessional. Senator Jerry Hill…

Opening the Vatican summit on child protection and the clerical sexual abuse crisis, Pope Francis said, “The holy people of God are watching and are awaiting from us not simple, predictable condemnations, but concrete and effective measures” to stop abuse. The February 21-24 summit meeting has brought together almost 190 Church leaders: the presidents of…

Pope Francis has restored priestly faculties to 94-year-old Fr Ernesto Cardenal, who had been suspended in 1984 for holding a cabinet position in Nicaragua’s Sandinista government, in violation of canon law. “The Holy Father has graciously granted the absolution of all canonical censures imposed on Rev. Fr Ernesto Cardenal, accepting the request he had recently…

Dioceses in the state of New Jersey made public on February 13 the names of priests whom they said had been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of minors, and one of the names is former US Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. The former US cardinal’s name appears in the list from the Archdiocese of Newark with a…

An independent investigation into the much-discussed encounter that went viral between Catholic high school students, a Native American tribal leader and members of another protest group on the Lincoln Memorial grounds in Washington in January found no evidence that the students of Kentucky’s Covington Catholic High School issued “offensive or racist statements”. A report on…

Following deadly protests against Haiti’s president and the drowning deaths of at least 28 people in an illegal crossing to the Bahamas, the country’s Catholic bishops have said all Haitians must come together for a wise solution to the country’s dangers. “We must wake up to take together the full measure of the danger that…

Make
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 Left unchecked, unbridled greed and a thirst for profit leads down a slippery slope that endangers the earth and all who live on it, especially indigenous populations, a Vatican official said. Msgr Fernando Chica Arellano, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the…

Twisted ideas of power and authority in the Catholic Church have contributed to the clerical sexual abuse crisis, leaders of religious orders said, but sometimes the positive “sense of family” in their own communities also made them slow to act. “Pope Francis rightly attacks the culture of clericalism which has hindered our fight against abuse…

Joyce Duriga   When the Vatican announced on February 15 that Pope Francis had signed a decree recognizing a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed John Henry Newman, clearing the way for his canonisation, there was rejoicing in Chicago. The proposed miracle that God worked through the intercession of Newman in 2013 involved a…

The sacred liturgy is meant to help the people of God conform their heart, mind and actions more closely to Christ, Pope Francis said. “We know that it is not enough to change liturgical books to improve the quality of the liturgy. To just do this would be a deception,” he said. “For life to…